Survey: Hungary is only a partly free state like Senegal or Peru
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According to the latest report of Freedom House, Hungary lost one point on a list ranking countries based on people’s access to political rights and civil liberties. Hungary received 69 out of the 100 points with which it fell into the category of the partly free countries. That means that the country’s ranking is a bit better than India and Ecuador but could not precede Senegal or Peru.
According to freedomhouse.org, “Freedom House rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report. Individual freedoms—ranging from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law—can be affected by state or non-state actors.“
Based on the results, Hungary received 26/40 on political rights. In the introductory overview, they wrote, for example, that PM Viktor Orbán “pushed through constitutional and legal changes that have allowed it to consolidate control over the country’s independent institutions.” They added that recently, the government accepted measures hampering operations of opposition groups, critical journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).
Building an illiberal state is what Orbán openly declared as one of his primary targets. Hungarians know it and neverthless they largely support him. In that aspect, 69 is still too high a score, it means that he has not fully succeeded yet. Still India, Ecuador and I suppose other countries such as North Korea and Saudi Arabia do worse ( from Orbán’s perspective better ) than Hungary. But time is on Orbán’s side, just give him another decade and he will make it.
Hungarians are steadily digging their own grave, probably thinking that when the ruin will be complete they will still find the external enemy to blame for it. As always. Like with the Ottomans, the Austrians, the “west” ( Trianon… ) etc. Such immature approach will eventually make the building collapse.
If anyone would take 2 minutes to read the introduction to this Freedom Watch Report and see what they say about USA democracy you would see it is far left organisation.
Mario is entitled to his opinion but as always he is so wrong
Bruce, if for a moment you could put aside those categories like right and left and tell me how you’d call a country where state media, which theoretically should be neutral, and almost all private media are controlled by the government and where the few opposition media ( see Index and Klubradio recently ) are one by one being silenced by yhe government? We are talking of about 90 % of media in the hands of one man, through his oligarchs and friends. Is this normal? Do you think Hungary has media pluralism just because Nepszava still is allowed and DNH allows pluralism? We are talking of one Hungarian language media against tens, and of one English language media that almost no Hungarian reads.
How do you call this country? I call it an illiberal state. After all, Orban’s declared goal.
Stay well.
Mario is nothing but a worm.
Like other useless creatures, he will continue to live an existence the high-point of which is defecating
occasionally.
WHAT, ME WORRY ?